Norway’s $840B fund gets 12 percent returns in first year

A major New York City investor, Norway’s $840 billion sovereign wealth fund saw 11.8 percent returns in its real estate investments in 2013.

Norges Bank Investment Management, which controls the fund, acquired stakes in office buildings with a joint venture with TIAA-CREF at 475 Fifth Avenue and 470 Park Avenue South in February of last year as part of a nearly 50 percent stake in a $1.2 billion portfolio up in major East Coast cities, according to previous reports.

“The fund made its first property purchases in the U.S. in 2013,” Yngve Slyngstad, the chief executive of Norges, told the New York Observer. “Investments in real estate will increase substantially in the coming years, and we have strengthened our organization over the past year with this in mind.”